Maggie's FarmWe are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for. |
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Wednesday, June 18. 2008QQQReality is only an illusion, albeit a very persistent one. Albert Einstein Tuesday, June 17. 2008QQQI think the devil doesn't exist, but man has created him, he has created him in his own image and likeness. Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov QQQ- G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy Monday, June 16. 2008QQQTwo plus two equals five is not without its attractions. Fyodor Dostoevsky, Notes from Underground Sunday, June 15. 2008QQQCS Lewis as quoted in an essay on evil at Belmont:
Friday, June 13. 2008QQQIt is not as a child that I believe and confess Jesus Christ. My hosanna is born of a furnace of doubt. Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov Thursday, June 12. 2008QQQSo long as man remains free he strives for nothing so incessantly and so painfully as to find someone to worship. Fyodor Dostoevky, The Brothers Karamazov Wednesday, June 11. 2008QQQNor is there any embarrassment in the fact that we're ridiculous, isn't it true? For it's actually so, we are ridiculous, light-minded, with bad habits, we're bored, we don't know how to look, how to understand, we're all like that, all, you, and I, and they! Now, you're not offended when I tell you to your face that you're ridiculous? And if so, aren't you material? You know, in my opinion it's sometimes even good to be ridiculous, if not better: we can the sooner forgive each other, the sooner humble ourselves; we can't understand everything at once, we can't start right out with perfection! To achieve perfection, one must first begin by not understanding many things! And if we understand too quickly, we may not understand well. This I tell you, you, who have already been able to understand... and not understand... so much. I'm not afraid for you now. Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Idiot QQQIf you want self-esteem, do esteemable things. A friend of Bill Monday, June 9. 2008QQQIn most societies in the world, people aren't worried about the price of gas. They're worried about where their next meal is coming from. Mark Levin, on the radio tonight. It's a good point: the whole world would love to have the worries that Americans have. QQQThe dude is just a young Commie Chicago pol who talks like a preacher, for heaven's sake. Maybe reporters aren't used to hearing preachers. The News Junkie of Maggie's Farm, yesterday A Command and Control QQQ
I think that just about sums it all up. It is endlessly fascinating and dismaying to me that so many people seem to want to be controlled.
Posted by Bird Dog
in Politics, Quotidian Quotable Quote (QQQ)
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08:33
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QQQ"In the Hegelian model, it's not enough to be the antithesis party." Newt Gingrich (h/t, Evang. Outpost) Friday, June 6. 2008QQQHour by hour, drop by drop, Aeschylus, Agamemnon Thursday, June 5. 2008QQQFascism, at its core, is the view that every nook and cranny of society should work together in spiritual union toward the same goals overseen by the state. "Everything in the State, nothing outside the State," is how Mussolini defined it. Mussolini coined the word "totalitarian" to describe not a tyrannical society but a humane one in which everyone is taken care of and contributes equally. It was an organic concept in which every class, every individual, was part of the larger whole. From Jonah Goldberg's book, as quoted at No Pasaran. It's what Mark Levin terms "soft tyranny." Monday, June 2. 2008QQQ
"Like an old door, every man past a certain age comes with historical warps and creaks of one kind or another, and a woman who wishes to put him to serious further use must expect to do a certain amount of sanding and planing."
- Joseph O'Neill, in Netherland Wednesday, May 28. 2008QQQTo speak of man's search for God is like speaking of the mouse's search for the cat. C.S. Lewis, in Surprised by Joy. (h/t to Dr. Bob)
Posted by Bird Dog
in Quotidian Quotable Quote (QQQ), Religion
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18:31
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Saturday, May 24. 2008QQQWho is wise? He who learns from every man. Ben Zoma, from The Ethics of the Fathers Thursday, May 22. 2008QQQIntelligent people are a dime a dozen. Whenever I meet blogger people and academics I'm agog at how dull and lifeless they are. When people aren't all that bright or intellectual you can just take them as they come, but intelligence expressed as rationalism instead of as wisdom in action has little or nothing to say about whether anybody is a worthwhile person or not. It's become a kind of contra-indicator to me, actually. A friend Monday, May 12. 2008QQQ"I reveal myself in my true colors, as a stick-in-the-mud. I hold a number of beliefs that have been repudiated by the liveliest intellects of our time. I believe order is better than chaos, creation better than destruction. I prefer gentleness to violence, forgiveness to vendetta. On the whole I think that knowledge is preferable to ignorance, and I am sure that human sympathy is more valuable than ideology. I believe that in spite of the recent triumphs of science, men have not changed much in the last two thousand years; and in consequence we must still try to learn from history. History is ourselves. I also hold one or two beliefs that are more difficult to put shortly. For example, I believe in courtesy, the ritual by which we avoid hurting other people's feelings by satisfying our own egos. I think we should remember that we are part of a great whole, which for convenience we call nature. All living things are our brothers and sisters. Above all, I believe in the God-given genius of certain individuals, and I value a society that makes their existence possible." Kenneth Clark ("Civilization") Tuesday, May 6. 2008QQQThere is no such thing on earth as an uninteresting subject; the only thing that can exist is an uninterested person. G. K. Chesterton Sunday, May 4. 2008Not from today's LectionaryFrom Thomas Merton, via Anchoress' Memories of God:
Posted by Bird Dog
in Quotidian Quotable Quote (QQQ), Religion
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07:38
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Saturday, May 3. 2008The "dignity of plants" and the cruel barbarism of VegansWhen man ceases to worship God he does not worship nothing, but worships everything. Contrary to a widespread impression, G.K. Chesterton apparently never said that. Still, it's a fine statement, and relevant to the modern form of Paganism which views the lives of the unborn, ready-to-be-born, or born-damaged as insignificant, but the social lives of Goldfish - and now the souls of asparagus - as sacred. A quote from Smith at Weekly Standard: "What is clear, however, is that Switzerland's enshrining of "plant dignity" is a symptom of a cultural disease that has infected Western civilization, causing us to lose the ability to think critically and distinguish serious from frivolous ethical concerns. It also reflects the triumph of a radical anthropomorphism that views elements of the natural world as morally equivalent to people. Why is this happening? Our accelerating rejection of the Judeo-Christian world view, which upholds the unique dignity and moral worth of human beings, is driving us crazy. Once we knocked our species off its pedestal, it was only logical that we would come to see fauna and flora as entitled to rights." Insty has a hilarious video to dramatize the subject. Regular readers know that all of creation is precious to us here at Magggie's Farm. We love plants, trees, birds, butterflies, rocks, mountains, meadows, rivers, intensely. Love them, love to be amongst them, and learn all we can about them. But we still hold that there is a big difference between "precious" and "sacred." These folks have taken the Pathetic Fallacy to a psychotic extreme. One is forced to wonder whether the only dining acceptable to Greenie Gaia-worshippers would now involve cannibalism, since they want us to worry about the souls of asparagus and lobsters, and view human life as an obnoxious intrusion on an otherwise beautiful Eden (except that most animals eat plants and/or other animals). Still, I must confess that the shrill scream of asparagus when it hits that steam always whets my pre-post-Christian appetite.
Posted by Bird Dog
in Fallacies and Logic, Our Essays, Quotidian Quotable Quote (QQQ), Religion
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22:12
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Friday, May 2. 2008QQQ"Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge in the field of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods." Albert Einstein
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